Co-Create

Steve Martin

• Verlag: Business Expert Press
• Jahr: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781631576287
• Thema: Business
• Thema: Project Management

Successfully moving an organization forward is a complex task. Historically professional organizations, like the Project Management Institute, have done a fine job of providing best practices and technical tools to support project managers in the field. These tools will continue to be critical in the future. The opportunity now is to add to that body of knowledge by addressing, more completely, the human experience. In reviewing the literature, practitioners and academics alike have noted that committed teams play an important role in creating exceptional project outcomes. What has been missing is the connection between what's known about employee engagement and commitment, from a general management perspective, and a practical method to integrate that knowledge with project management tools. This book will provide a comprehensive map for project managers to learn about the human experience during a project. It will present specific practices for generating commitment that can be easily incorporated by project managers. The Co-create Model presents a conceptual understanding and a method not currently found in the literature.

CHAPTER 1

The Co-Create Model—A Map for the Journey

When we were developing the Co-Create model, we asked ourselves how we could combine what we felt was most important (the ideas) with best practices from project management, change management, and team development. We continued to tweak the model until we felt we had an excellent practice. This chapter describes the four underlying ideas and then uses six distinct phases to help teams achieve results.

Figure 1.1 offers a visual description of the Co-Create model. At first, it might look a bit complicated, but it is actually very straightforward. There are six phases that teams use to launch and complete projects and produce results. These six phases are highlighted in Figure 1.2 and include defining, discovery, co-create the ideal, implementation planning, execution, and fine tuning.

Figure 1.1 The Co-Create model

Figure 1.2 Highlighting the “project” phases

The project phases help us build robust solutions to new opportunities. These six phases keep us on track and remind us to spend time where it will be most beneficial.

People complete projects, so during the work we attend to two types of experiences, the team or group experience (highlighted in Figure 1.3) and each individual’s experience (highlighted in Figure 1.4).

The Six Project Phases

The six project phases represent a process for individual engagement, team creation, and project execution. Each phase of the Co-Create model is explained in more detail in the coming chapters, but here is a brief description:

1. Defining: We spend a lot of time at the beginning of each project to ensure that we adequately define and describe what we want the project to accomplish and the roles people will play in helping to support and manifest project goals. During this critical first phase, every project owner creates a white paper (or Charter) for their project. We have found that the time invested upfront improves everything that happens throughout the project.

Figure 1.3 Highlighting the “group” experience

Figure 1.4 Highlighting the “individual” experience

2. Discovery: During the discovery phase, the team creates a robust and detailed picture of the current state. All team members participate and this tends to be a very energizing process. The information they generate is critical to analyzing and creating solutions that work.

3. Co-create the ideal: The team leader guides the group in generating possibilities and creating a plan forward based on the whitepaper from Phase 1 and the current state analysis from Phase 2. They discuss, agree upon, and document the conditions for success for the project.

4. Implementation planning: During Phase 4, the team gets into the nitty-gritty to determine what needs to happen, by when, and by whom. This phase is the most similar to traditional project planning processes. As you will discover in Chapter 6, however, our action plans are much more than a long list of to-dos. They contain methods to enhance successful implementation.

5. Launch: The team launches the project and because their conversations have been open and collaborative thus far they are able to flexibly implement the project plan and meet or beat the desired results.

6. Fine tuning: As the name implies, this phase of the project enables the team to make additional adjustments (they measure and adjust throughout the project) and tie up any loose ends. The team closes out the project.

These project phases ensure that our projects are well planned and executed. Most organizations focus on Phase 4 and Phase 5, but few start and end with the deliberate and open project management practices like we use in the Co-Create model. The extra work we do upfront serves several important purposes and improves our results. Do our projects take longer? I would argue no. We start slower and with more initial discussions, but this work paves the way for a less troublesome project implementation with fewer post-implementation issues.

At the same time the team is working through the six project phases, they are experiencing their work as a team and as individuals. How people work together and experience change is important. Until we developed the Co-Create model we did not have a way to proactively help our team members understand what they were going to go through. We also didn’t have a comprehensive map for our project leaders. Taking the mystery out has benefited both.

You can probably recall a situation where a well-planned project underperformed because of poor team dynamics or low collaboration. And you may know individuals who are more talented than is evident by their contribution to the team. The group experience and individual experience elements of the model build in the structure we need to ensure that we consider the people part of the project.

The Group Experience

To build a great team experience, we use the Tuckman model of team development (Tuckman 1977). Teams go through recognizable stages of development—and they go into and out of these stages many times during their work together. Dr. Bruce Tuckman presented a model that identified five stages that teams experience. Figure 1.5 shows the stages of the Tuckman model, which are: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning. Tuckman’s model explains that as the team develops maturity and ability, relationships and coping skills strengthen. Project setbacks or victories will also affect how the team works together. For the Co-Create Model, we have overlaid the stages of team development with our six project phases. We do some very specific activities throughout the project’s life cycle to help our teams work well together and quickly identify and deal with any setbacks.

Figure 1.5 Tuckman model of team development

I am frequently asked whether the need to do team development is reduced as team members work on more than one project together. The answer is yes and no. We certainly benefit from the synergies, relationship building, and learning that have occurred on previous projects. That said, every team is a new team and project roles and tasks are different. Sources of potential conflict or discomfort are often tied to particular topics or tasks, and so we need to attend to the team’s developmental stages—in some degree—on every project. By understanding the stages of team development and the corresponding team leadership and executive support actions that best support each stage (and movement to the next), we have found that we can better help teams do their best work. Here is a brief description of the stages of the Tuckman model of team development:

1. Forming: The initial stage of team development where members are getting oriented to one another and seeking to understand their roles and boundaries.

2. Storming: This stage of team development is characterized by style clashes, conflict, and working out differences. We find that familiar team members can go back to this phase when a new project or task brings disagreements to the surface.

3. Norming: The team is getting to know each other and is working through how to work well together. Their efforts look and feel more cohesive.

4. Performing: The team is utilizing the strengths of their relationships to get more done. Their ability to collaborate and solve problems is a competitive edge. Roles are flexible but clear.

5. Adjourning: The team creates closure for their work and feels complete in the task of marking the project’s end.

Teams can skip forward or backward in development when new members join or when they are affected by unsettling changes. In addition to group health and drama, we also need to deal with how each team member is experiencing the demands of the project, interactions with his or her colleagues, and the work processes.

The Individual Experience

To help our employees connect with their individual experience we draw upon the work of Peter Senge, Otto Sharmer, and Betty Sue Flowers. In their 2005 book called Presence: Exploring Profound Change In People, Organizations, and Society (Senge et al. 2005), the authors offered a model of individual change or transition called the U model that we use throughout the six project phases of the Co-Create model. Here is a quick review of the elements of the U model:

1. Sensing (suspending): Gathering and considering information and mental models about the current state.

2. Redirecting: Seeing things from a systemic and holistic way. Becoming aware that we may need to think about things differently and modify their current work activities.

3. Letting go: Letting go of definitions of success and mental models that no longer serve our goals. Opening up our minds to new possibilities. Being more coachable.

4. Letting come: This is the creative work that comes as much from the heart as the head. The essence or seed of the solution becomes conscious.

5. Crystallizing: Bringing together the new ideas to build a path forward.

6. Trying out (prototyping): Experimenting with new approaches. Learning from the process of trying. This step involves iterations—making adjustments based on the learning derived from trying it out.

7. Locking in (institutionalizing): Adopting and forming new habits and regimens. The new becomes your natural way.

The U model helps us understand and improve individual growth and develo...